January Week 2, 2008

Monday  January 7 , 2008

Faith which does not doubt is dead faith.

Miguel de Unamuno, philosopher and writer (1864-1936)

Cindy meeting with the State Employment Social Worker (My title for him) at the Junior College in Ione. Poor Cindy needs a lot of help and I am fairly well convinced that she will not be getting much from this outfit. They are underfunded and spread too thin to be very effective. There is no work up here anyway.

I went to the gym to watch Monica play Basketball... they lost, I took the girls to the movie and dropped them off.

Peanut got spayed today, the little monster reminds me of the creature that ate it's way out of some guy's stomach in the movie 'Alien'...nasty little dog.

Tuesday  January 8 , 2008

A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.

Calvin & Hobbes

Christian is 18 today, he slept most of the day and then took off with Shoen & Mike. We bought him a cake but he didn't show up to eat it so we sang Happy Birthday and ate it ourselves.

Today was a waste, I drove to Newport in a snow storm to see the judge about the 'driving to o fast for conditions' ticket I got last month I got there exactly two days early... embarrassing. Now I have to go back there again on Thursday.

Wednesday  January 9 , 2008

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.

Banksy, street artist (b. 1974)

Another busy day doing stuff that needs to be done, that I don't particularly want to do. The day did start out well with a discussion at the MMM  that turned into a heated debate that eventually had to end because reality intruded. It was 'Dump Day', which I did unassisted. We had the house to get ready for inspection by a Social Worker named 'Bob', and an IEP for Autumn.

We called to ensure that 'Bob; was coming and we were told emphatically that he wasn't coming and that his name was Rory not Bob.

Kids came home at noon, Minimum Day .

Bob called and said he really was coming. We had called the right agency, wrong division, he would be here in a few minutes... The house looked... OK... He came in and asked Amanda a bunch of personal questions in an intimidating tone of voice... at least I thought it was unnecessarily accusatory. Turns out that's just the way he talks and he really was a pretty nice guy. He looked at the room where Amanda is staying (Monica & Cindy's room) and pronounced the house adequate and left about 10 minutes before we had to be at the school for the IEP. (He wasn't here a half an hour).

At the last minute we decided to take Autumn with us so we were actually a few minutes late. The Special Education Teacher is very strong willed and has very strong opinions, I like her. She really wants to educate Autumn and I am really rooting for her and I am doing my best to support her. We talked a bit about next year and how the blazes we are going to handle the transition to Junior High... No one there has had any experience with someone like Autumn and  is absolutely nothing in place at the High School [High School and Junior High are in the same building] for a child like her. I found out today that the class Autumn is in now is not especially supportive, not like the class last year and the year before. Perhaps we should have allowed her to move on earlier, it's a bitch trying to do the right thing when there is no way to know what the 'right thing' is. I am sure I will be writing much more on this subject in the future.

I realized myself, and was reminded at least three times today, that there was a Town Council Meeting tonight and still managed to let it slip out of my mind. I made it at the last minute. The meeting was pretty typical, lots to do in town and no money to do it with. Lots of plans, lots of promises... this year will be interesting.

Thursday  January 10 , 2008

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

I went to court today, it went about how I expected it to go. I got the ticket put on hold, if I can go 12 months without getting another ticket it will get removed from the files. I still have to pay the fine though, but it is off my record now and will stay off... it I can keep from getting another ticket.

Has anyone been following Leroy Siever's Blog?  The last two post's have been pretty damn sobering. He has been tracking his battle with Cancer and it looks like Leroy is getting to the point where donning the armor, mounting the charger and picking up the lance is getting more difficult with each day. He's still spurring his steed when the trumpets sound though. I doubt he would call it courage though it seems more like pure stubborn, Yankee, spit in your eye, never give up spirit. Last year sometime he drew a comparison to the Black Knight in Monty Python's Meaning of Life , it cracked me up at the time but the reality is that giving up, even when you are fighting a battle you can't win, is just as pointless as fighting, what you gain by fighting on though is the knowledge that you went down swinging and cussing, out of gas, out of bullets. Leroy Siever may not heroic in his mind but he is in mine.

Friday  January 11 , 2008

Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like.

 Lemony Snicket

Autumn would not go to school today, Nothing we tried worked, she just did not understand that she could not watch Hannah Montana. My instinct is that she truly does not have a clue that there is a problem, She wants to do one thing and we want her to do another. We can give her a consequence but if she does not comprehend what she did to deserve it a consequence would appear to be arbitrary and random, like kicking a puppy every day at noon for peeing on the carpet the night before, it would eventually learn something but it would not learn to stop peeing on the floor. It would learn to hate you and it would learn that you were going to hurt him at noon.

Saturday  January 12 , 2008

I was raised the old-fashioned way, with a stern set of moral principles: Never lie, cheat, steal or knowingly spread a venereal disease. Never speed up to hit a pedestrian or, or course, stop to kick a pedestrian who has already been hit. From which it followed, of course, that one would never ever - on pain of deletion from dozens of Christmas card lists across the country - vote Republican.

Barbara Ehrenreich

There are a couple articles below and a Blog post from a friend of ours... another hero.

The first is Leonard Pitts, Jr.'s column on the disgusting harassment and stalking of Brittney Spears. She may be a lot of things in peoples minds but the American thirst for kicking people when they are down makes me wonder about the character of my countrymen. Brittney Spears is still a human being, she is no better or worse than any of us, what gives us the right to pass judgment. She and the other kids thrust into the limelight with nothing to defend themselves but their talent for acting or singing or whatever are in the same predicament. Some have responsible people around them to keep them grounded and some have parasites around them who are feeding their egos and telling them they don't have to obey the rules.

The preoccupation with celebrity and celebrity bashing is insane, how, in a sane mind, can something as shallow and transient as celebrity worship take precedence over a crumbling economy and a senseless war? Their distorted view of what I perceive to be reality versus the superficial world of popular culture makes me fear for the the sanity of the country.

The upcoming election is a media circus and the deciding factors in the minds of much of the public seem trifling and irrelevant to me. It is boggling to me that it does not matter to the general public what a candidates views on the Economy, Healthcare, or International Relations are, this election will be decided on the basis of Appearance, Race, Gender and/or Religion.

The second article is by Greg Palast, looking into accusations of voter fraud in New Mexico and Arizona... a well stated exposé... I think.

The last is from a friend named Amy, she is about 10 years older than my oldest grand daughter.

Good football today, unless you are a Seahawks or a Jaguar fan, if so, sorry bout that. I have to admit that I am a bit torn about the Seahawks Packer game, I like the Seahawks but I guess I like the Packers more... I have learned to like the Patriots over the past few years, I am usually a 'Root for the Underdog' sort of guy but at some point excellence, dedication and commitment has to be rewarded. I will probably root for the Patriots to win the Superbowl, it will depend on whether the Packers win the next game against the Cowboys or the Giants...

Sunday  January 13 , 2008

If you could kick in the pants the fellow responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn't be able to sit down for six weeks.

I really enjoyed this weeks games... there were no clinkers and, as far as I am concerned, the outcomes couldn't have been better if I had been able to write the endings. Green Bay has more than a good shot at beating the Giants especially at Lambeau Field and San Diego will be in an up hill fight all the way against New England... Green Bay Packers against the New England Patriots in the Superbowl... well I can dream can't I

There Ought To Be A Law...
Leonard Pitts, Jr. 1/11/2008

I’ve got nothing against fame. I’m famous myself. Sort of.

OK, not Will Smith famous. Or Ellen DeGeneres famous. All right, not even Marilu Henner famous.

I’m the kind of famous where you fly into some town to give a speech before that shrinking subset of Americans who still read newspapers and, for that hour, they treat you like a rock star, applauding, crowding around, asking for autographs.

Then it’s over. You walk through the airport the next day and no one gives a second glance. You are nobody again.

Dave Barry told me this story once about Mark Russell, the political satirist. It seems Russell gave this performance where he packed the hall, got a standing O. He was The Man. Later, at the hotel, The Man gets hungry, but the only place to eat is a McDonald’s across the road. The front door is locked, but the drive-through is still open. So he stands in it. A car pulls in behind him. The driver honks and yells, "Great show, Mark!"

The moral of the story is that a certain level of fame — call it the level of minor celebrity — comes with a built-in reality check. One minute, you’re the toast of Milwaukee. The next, you’re standing behind a Buick waiting to order a Big Mac.

That level of fame might stroke your ego from time to time, but it won’t isolate or imprison you. And it will leave you your dignity. Which is more than Britney Spears has right now.

I will leave it to others to talk about the child (the noun is appropriate) and her latest public meltdown, as captured on a jittery video showing her in the back of an ambulance after a three- hour standoff that began when she refused to surrender her kids to an emissary from her ex-husband. What gets me is that the jittery video exists. And that an army of photographers pressed against the ambulance so that it was forced to wade slowly through them. And that all this was captured from a helicopter overhead.

Friends and neighbors, that is not news coverage. It’s a stakeout. It’s harassment. It’s stalking. And there ought to be — I’m in earnest about this — a law. Call it the Get A Life Act of 2008.

Look, I understand that fascination with celebrity deeds and misdeeds is nothing new. It’s older than James Brown leading a police chase, older than Lana Turner’s daughter killing her mom’s gangster lover, even older than Fatty Arbuckle on trial for rape. I also understand that the relationship between celebrities and cameras is symbiotic. And yes, I know it’s difficult to work up empathy or outrage over something that affects a small class of people richer and better looking than the rest of us.

But see, I also know something has gone wrong, some essential perspective has been lost, when a Julia Roberts feels compelled — as she did a few weeks back — to chase down a photographer who had reportedly been staking out her children at school.

I’m embarrassed as a journalist that these members of my professional family — distant cousins, granted — have found no level to which they will not stoop to feed the public fixation on celebrity gossip. But I am also appalled, just as a person, that we the people provide the demand that drives the suppliers, that we support this voyeuristic intrusion, all-access trespass,
24/7 surveillance, of other people’s lives.

For criminy sake, America: do you really need pictures of Britney in an ambulance so badly? Go read a book. Play with your kids. Make love. Something. Anything.

One is reminded of how photographers stood snapping away over the wreck of Princess Diana’s car, like vultures feeding on carrion. And one is sickened.

If that’s what it means to be truly famous, keep it. I’d rather stand in line behind a Buick.

Space Invaders: Five Million Aliens for Hillary

Will José Crow Voter ID Laws Pick Our President?

by Greg Palast
Thursday, January 10, 2008

State Representative Russell Pearce of Mesa Arizona has warned us:

"There is a massive effort under way to register illegal aliens in this country."

How many? According to the Congressman's office, there are five million: Democrats, he says, who are not good Americans - they're Mexicans!

Really?! Holy Cow! The Senator has uncovered a conspiracy to flood the voter rolls with Brown Hordes who've swum the Rio Grande just for a chance to vote for Hillary Clinton?!

Thank the Lord for vigilant citizens like Senator Pearce. His efforts, along with the work of other patriotic (Republican) politicians, successfully stopped 300,000 voters from obtaining ballots in 2004 - because these voters had brought the wrong ID to the polls. New ID laws in Arizona and half a dozen states blocked these voters at the polling-house door. Others with "wrong" ID's were handed what are called 'provisional' ballots - which were then not counted.

On Wednesday, the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court indicated it would vote to uphold these new voter ID requirements.

And just in time. If not for these new ID laws, warns Senator Pearce and other Republicans across the nation, a dark wave of illegal aliens would vote again in our upcoming Presidential election.

Or maybe not. Maybe there aren't five million illegal voters for Hillary or Obama or Edwards. Maybe there are just five hundred. Maybe there are none.

I called Senator Pearce's office to get a couple of the names of these illegal voters. After all, it should be easy as pie to catch them: they have to give their names and addresses to register and vote. Odd thing, out of five million illegal registrants, the Senator, after a week of looking, couldn't provide me the name of one. Not one.

Another Republican politician, this one in New Mexico, the sponsor of the voter ID law there, said on the floor of the State Legislature that she had the names of two illegal voters. Well, that's a start.

I called her, Representative Justine Fox-Young (yes, that's her name, and she has the ID to prove it).

Q. Justine, you've uncovered felony criminals [illegal voting is a jail-time crime in every state]. Do you have the names?

A. Oh, yes!

Q. Really? Wow! Did you turn these names over to the US Attorney?

A. Well, no ….

Q. You had evidence of a crime and you didn't have the bad guys arrested?

A. Not exactly ….

Fox-Young promised to send me the names of the illegal voters. The names never arrived. But shortly thereafter, based on her claim, the Legislature passed, and Governor Bill Richardson signed, a voter ID law certain to knock out Hispanic citizens. (In fairness to Richardson, I should note that he forced the Republicans to drastically alter their bill.)

Our investigations team talked to some of New Mexico's allegedly illegal voters.

In 2004, the Catholic Church organized a bus and caravan to take newly registered Chicano "low-riders" to a Roswell, New Mexico polling station. The white officials turned away several of the young Hispanics for presenting the wrong ID. Maybe the middle initial on the voter form was missing from the driver's license, or "Jr." was added. No perfect match, no vote: a gotcha! set of rules that seemed to apply only to voters of a darker hue.

One of the rejected young Chicanas said she wouldn't return to try again to vote; one round of humiliation was enough. "They don't want me to vote there anyway," she said. And they don't.

But hey, what's wrong with requiring voter ID? I'll give you a million reasons. Since 2004, when 300,000 citizens lost their right to vote because of ID challenges, the number of states that have passed voter ID laws has quadrupled. Expect the challenges to quadruple as well, to over a million in the upcoming 2008 presidential election. Does ID challenges make a difference? In New Mexico, George Bush's victory over John Kerry by 5,900 votes can be completely accounted for by minority provisional ballots rejected. ID was the key.

In Louisiana, the law says voters may be asked to produce a photo ID. A study conducted by the US Department of Justice discovered that Black voters are only one-fifth as likely to have photo ID's as white voters. (That figure may be optimistic - as Justice took the survey before Black voters' ID washed away with Hurricane Katrina.)

In New Mexico, in Louisiana, in Georgia, in Alabama and in Florida, it's the same story. It's not a random set of voters who lose out on ID challenges; it's voters of color.

Four years ago, the Jim Crow era ended when biased impediments to voting were struck down by the courts and Congress: poll taxes, "literacy" tests, citizenship tests that blocked Blacks more than whites. From that time until now, almost every state has accepted your signature matched to prior records as proof you're a legal voter. Now we're going to change this system to prevent the crime of folks voting more than once and the crime of aliens voting. The odd thing about these crimes: they virtually don't exist. Yet to prevent crimes  that aren't committed, we are allowing elections officials to commit a greater crime: stopping legal voters - especially new, young, Hispanic voters - from having their piece of our democracy.

Who was behind these viciously undemocratic, racist José Crow attack on brown-skinned voters? His initials are Karl Rove. In 2006, I smelled out the link to Rove, then White House political chief, when I reached out to the US Attorney for New Mexico.

That US Attorney, David Iglesias, had indeed investigated the "illegal" voters identified by Fox-Young, working from a list of 150 sent to him by Republican officials. After marching all over the mesas with the FBI, Iglesias found exactly zero cases to prosecute.

So, finding folks innocent, Iglesias did not arrest them. That was a mistake - at least for his career. Karl Rove, visiting New Mexico, heard from the state's Republican Party chiefs that Iglesias was not bringing prosecutions and would not continue the witchhunt for "illegal" voters. Iglesias contends that Rove took the Republican complaint to the Oval Office. There, a man who goes by the alias, "The Decider," decided to fire Iglesias and other US Attorneys who wouldn’t agree to phony prosecutions of innocent voters.

Iglesias told me, "This voter fraud thing is the bogeyman. It was designed to scare up, rile the [Republican] base. I looked into [the fraud allegations] ...We didn't find the evidence."

I met with Iglesias at the park overlooking the Statue of Liberty in New York. The wistful ex-prosecutor, who has returned to his former post with the Navy as a JAG lawyer, said, "Looking back, I mean I feel like I was set up; that they really felt that I would go forward with some half-baked prosecutions and hope for a guilty plea. That's not what a legitimate federal prosecutor does."

(Rove won't respond to BBC's requests for his views - nor respond to a subpoena from Congress to explain his involvement in the firings.)

Whatever Rove's political motives, I did have to ask if there's a legitimate reason for these new ID laws. I challenged the leader of the New Mexico Catholic Charities voter drive, Santiago Juarez, to answer Ms. Fox-Young's charge that, without voter ID, his new citizens could steal elections by voting more than once using someone else's name.

Santiago replied, "How do you organize thousands of people to vote twice? Hell, it's hard enough organizing them to vote once!"